


Exactly Once

by caldera32



Category: Old Kingdom - Garth Nix
Genre: F/M, Gen, I would say post-canon but in regard to their relationship it falls earlier, i dunno man, slight Lirael/Nick, so I guess post-Creature in the Case?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-16 15:10:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21038237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caldera32/pseuds/caldera32
Summary: Lirael Sees the future only one time in her life





	Exactly Once

She was with Nick when it happened, showing him how the Clayr created panes of ice to share their visions. His ramblings about projectors and films had faded from her awareness as an image formed on the ice and she found herself observing a couple from afar. It was not unlike her experiences using the dark mirror, but without the split view necessary when doing so in Death. As she thought on this the scene drew nearer, though the second person was no longer visible.

A woman sat facing away from Lirael, silver shot through her long black hair, with a dog at her side. The dog's ears twitched in reaction to a sound she couldn't hear, and Lirael gasped as a golden hand reached out to scratch the beast’s ears. She focused and the viewpoint shifted enough to see a sealed scroll in her – future her’s lap. A callused hand fiddled with the ribbons tied around the parchment but did not break the seal.

Nick called her name and she jumped, the vision disappearing like the shattered ice melting in the grass.

“Are you alright? I’ve been calling you some time now.” His hand was on her shoulder, and she realized just how close his face was to hers. She felt her cheeks heating up and let her hair fall forward to hide the blush.

“I'm fine; I just need a moment.”

Nick frowned but backed up to give her some space, making a show of looking away as if something in the trees had caught his interest.

It had been a long time since she’d yearned for the Sight and she had accepted that it would never come – at least not in the way she had wanted. Its sudden onset had shaken and confused her, especially since the vision seemed to have no purpose. But then, as her heart slowed to its normal pace, she recalled the words of her great-great-grandmother Filris:

“_Every Clayr is given the gift to See some portent of her death, though not the death itself, for no human could bear that weight.”_

She brushed a hand over the golden stars embroidered on her surcoat. Well, if nothing else this was proper proof that she is a daughter of the Clayr, and it wasn’t all bad – with the way her life had gone of late it was a comfort to know she’d live long enough for her hair to go silver. She wasn’t sure how to feel about the dog- not The Dog, of course, but the fact that she had one in the vision.

Nick had started pacing, lips clamped shut to hold back his impulse to ask questions.

Something fluttered in her chest and she thought of the other person she’d glimpsed at the start of the vision, how she’d assumed the two were a couple... no, best not dwell on that. There would be time later to pick apart what she’d Seen; for now she had some explaining to do.


End file.
